Girls' Night In
by hollyhobbit101
Summary: Padma struggles to make friends at Hogwarts without her sister there to help her.


**A/N: House: Ravenclaw**

 **Category: Themed**

 **Prompt: Interhouse relationship**

 **Word count: 1132**

* * *

Padma had always thought that being away from her sister would be a good thing. All their lives they had been in the same classes, the same groups, the same friendship circles. Their parents bought them identical clothing, and people consistently mixed up their names, despite there being a 50-50 chance of getting it right. It was frustrating to be seen as a package deal rather than two separate people, so being sorted into different houses was Padma's chance to branch out and become her own person.

Problem was, Padma had no idea how to go about making friends. Parvati was confident, assured, and had no problem going up to people and introducing herself. Padma was not her sister. She was more down to earth, preferring to keep quiet and let Parvati do the talking. This had never been an issue before, considering how, as a result of the sisters spending so much time together, one's friends would eventually become the other's. However, she was now alone, and with no clue how to talk to other people.

* * *

The other girls in her dorm were nice enough, she supposed. Mandy, Lisa, Morag, and Sue all acted friendly towards her and included her in their conversations, but she never quite managed to hit it off with them as well as they seemed to do with each other. She resigned herself in her lessons to grabbing the next available seat, especially since Parvati now had Lavender to partner with. For the first time in her life, Padma was envious of her sister's outgoing nature, and wished she could have even a fraction of the confidence Parvati did.

* * *

During one particularly dull History of Magic class, an origami bird landed on Padma's desk. She jumped in surprise, jolted from her absent minded doodling, and quickly unfolded it, noting her sister's neat print.

 _Meet me at Gryffindor Tower just after curfew. Bring blankets._

Padma looked to where Parvati was seated and caught her attention, raising her eyebrows. Parvati grinned and nodded enthusiastically, but before Padma had time to hiss a question at her a puff of smoke drifted up in front of her. She looked down in alarm to see the paper in her hand smoking. She dropped it on the desk and watched as the smoke thickened, and suddenly the note exploded into confetti with a small bang, drawing the attention of several students, but thankfully not of Binns, who continued his monologue about Ug the Intelligent, or whatever it was. Padma scowled at Parvati, whose shoulders were shaking with silent laughter, but she couldn't hold it, and her face split into an exasperated grin.

* * *

Ravenclaw Tower was an irritatingly far distance from Gryffindor Tower, and Padma lost count of how many alcoves she had to duck into to avoid Filch. Thankfully, Parvati was waiting outside the common room to meet her, tapping her foot impatiently.

"What took you so long?" she demanded, but Padma chose to ignore her. Parvati sighed and turned to the portrait. "Pig snout," she hissed.

The portrait remained closed, snoring loudly.

"Pig snout!" Louder.

Another snore.

Parvati groaned and stamped her foot. "Pig snout!" she cried, swatting Padma, who was trying and failing to stifle her laughter.

At long last, the Fat Lady stirred and swung open, grumbling about being woken up in the middle of her dream about being an opera star. The common room was deserted, save for Fred and George lounging in arm chairs on the opposite sides of the door.

"Well well well," Fred began, leaning forward and grinning.

"Up to no good are we?" George finished, copying his twin.

Parvati flipped him off, causing Padma to gasp quietly and the twins to laugh. "Shut up you two. It's not like either of you wouldn't do the same."

The twins shared a look and shrugged. "I don't know," Fred said in mock consideration.

"It might be good to get away from this one." George agreed.

"But don't worry-"

"-your secret's safe with us."

Padma's head was starting to spin from all the shared conversation and she sent a pleading look towards Parvati. Her sister sighed and tugged on her hand, pulling her towards the stairs on the right. Padma gladly followed, leaving the twins' howling laughter behind them.

* * *

The other four girls in the dormitory were gathered together in the middle of the room, sitting on top of a mountain of blankets and pillows pilfered from the beds. Parvati nudged plopped down next to Lavender and nudged her sister with her toe.

"Are you going to just stand there or will you actually join us?" she demanded, arching an eyebrow. Padma jumped, only then remembering the duvet gathered in her arms.

"Oh! Right. Um, I'll just-" she stuttered, feeling her face blush red. She laid her blanket out on the floor and sat down, nervous under the stares of the other girls. She felt awkward for a moment, and was almost ready to run back to Ravenclaw when Lavender started giggling. This set Parvati off, and eventually all the others joined in, Padma tentatively.

"I'm sorry," Lavender gasped. "I can't-" She was then overcome by another fit of giggles, so whatever she couldn't do remained a mystery to Padma.

"I'm still not sure we should be doing this," Hermione said weakly.

The girl next to her (Padma didn't know her name) shoved her gently. "Lighten up Hermione. It's not like anyone'll know, and Padma won't tell, will you?"

Padma shook her head quickly.

"See? Come on then; Truth or Dare. I choose Dare."

* * *

The night passed quickly, and Padma began to feel more and more relaxed. In the morning, after she had hurried back to Ravenclaw Tower, her dorm mates set to questioning her on where she had been all night. Part of her wanted to lie in case they disapproved, but she had never been a good liar so she briefly filled them in on the sleepover with the Gryffindors. The other girls listened, and Morag could barely contain her excitement at the realisation that this was possible.

"I've always wanted to have a sleepover," Sue mused. "Do you think we could get the Gryffindors over at some point?"

"Oh, yes!" Morag exclaimed. "We have to Padma!"

Padma grinned in relief and nodded enthusiastically. She spoke to Parvati about it at breakfast, and she was equally as eager, so a date was set for a week in the future.

* * *

Ravenclaw and Gryffindor sleepovers became a fixture of their school life, the girls alternating between which dorms they would sleep in. The ten of them became fast friends, banding together to discover passages and pathways that would make the journeys between dorms quicker. Padma had never been more grateful to her sister than she had that day.

* * *

 **A/N: Hope you enjoyed! Please leave a review if you have a moment. Bye!**


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